Illinois Law 1L Taking Questions

[Kilpatrick]

Most of the neighborhoods in C/U are nice. I personally wouldn't want to live that far away from the school but "far" is a very relative term around here. You would still be only about a ten minute drive away. The most important housing advice I would pass along is don't live anywhere too close to where undergrads live, like around Green St near campus. Every time I drive around that part of town I am grateful that somebody gave me that advice.

[Barbie]

Most of the neighborhoods in C/U are nice. I personally wouldn't want to live that far away from the school but "far" is a very relative term around here. You would still be only about a ten minute drive away. The most important housing advice I would pass along is don't live anywhere too close to where undergrads live, like around Green St near campus. Every time I drive around that part of town I am grateful that somebody gave me that advice.

The house is 1.8 miles from the law school. Thats pretty close, I thought. The ones that get really close that still have all the thing I want are double the price of this one .
Do a lot of undergrads live in Clark Park?

[bananasinpajamas]

.

[Kilpatrick]

Most of the neighborhoods in C/U are nice. I personally wouldn't want to live that far away from the school but "far" is a very relative term around here. You would still be only about a ten minute drive away. The most important housing advice I would pass along is don't live anywhere too close to where undergrads live, like around Green St near campus. Every time I drive around that part of town I am grateful that somebody gave me that advice.

The house is 1.8 miles from the law school. Thats pretty close, I thought. The ones that get really close that still have all the thing I want are double the price of this one .
Do a lot of undergrads live in Clark Park?

Yeah I mean you can drive from one end of town to the other in like 15 minutes. My sense of distance is just warped from living here. Anything east of Prospect feels 'far' but it's really not. Especially if you're getting a cheaper price.

No, undergrads definitely do not live over there. And honestly I think that's the most important thing.

[Barbie]

Most of the neighborhoods in C/U are nice. I personally wouldn't want to live that far away from the school but "far" is a very relative term around here. You would still be only about a ten minute drive away. The most important housing advice I would pass along is don't live anywhere too close to where undergrads live, like around Green St near campus. Every time I drive around that part of town I am grateful that somebody gave me that advice.

The house is 1.8 miles from the law school. Thats pretty close, I thought. The ones that get really close that still have all the thing I want are double the price of this one .
Do a lot of undergrads live in Clark Park?

Yeah I mean you can drive from one end of town to the other in like 15 minutes. My sense of distance is just warped from living here. Anything east of Prospect feels 'far' but it's really not. Especially if you're getting a cheaper price.

No, undergrads definitely do not live over there. And honestly I think that's the most important thing.

Thanks! Thats a big thing for me too. Less than 2 miles from campus seems really close. Right now I live about 10 miles from campus and think the commute is very small. Its been hard for me to find a house with the big fenced in yard, a garage, a basement, a fireplace, a porch, and near campus. I'm touring it upon my visit and signing the lease if everything works out. Can you speak to the safety of the neighborhood? Thats really important to me, even though I'm sure Chambana is overall much more safe than south Florida lol

[ChattelCat]

Most of the neighborhoods in C/U are nice. I personally wouldn't want to live that far away from the school but "far" is a very relative term around here. You would still be only about a ten minute drive away. The most important housing advice I would pass along is don't live anywhere too close to where undergrads live, like around Green St near campus. Every time I drive around that part of town I am grateful that somebody gave me that advice.

The house is 1.8 miles from the law school. Thats pretty close, I thought. The ones that get really close that still have all the thing I want are double the price of this one .
Do a lot of undergrads live in Clark Park?

There aren't a whole lot of "bad" places to live around here - it's just a matter of how far you want to be from the school. I've lived on the far western side of Champaign and now live on the far eastern side of Urbana. My apt in Champaign was about a 14 minute drive to school (lots of stop lights), my current place is about 7 minutes from school... you can still go home for lunch. I know some people really like living on campus and closer to the school - but I don't study in the library (I'd much rather study at home) so it's been great for me.

I'm not entirely sure where Clark Park is... is it the neighborhood just north of the Champaign Country Club (that's what google maps is telling me)? If so, that's a perfectly fine neighborhood to live in - pretty sure Jimmy John (as in the guy who started the sandwich shop) lives over there actually You definitely won't find any undergrads that "far" from campus. And you're probably an 8-10 minute drive from school at the very most (actually might be faster) straight down Prospect and take Kirby all the way over.

[Barbie]

Most of the neighborhoods in C/U are nice. I personally wouldn't want to live that far away from the school but "far" is a very relative term around here. You would still be only about a ten minute drive away. The most important housing advice I would pass along is don't live anywhere too close to where undergrads live, like around Green St near campus. Every time I drive around that part of town I am grateful that somebody gave me that advice.

The house is 1.8 miles from the law school. Thats pretty close, I thought. The ones that get really close that still have all the thing I want are double the price of this one .
Do a lot of undergrads live in Clark Park?

There aren't a whole lot of "bad" places to live around here - it's just a matter of how far you want to be from the school. I've lived on the far western side of Champaign and now live on the far eastern side of Urbana. My apt in Champaign was about a 14 minute drive to school (lots of stop lights), my current place is about 7 minutes from school... you can still go home for lunch. I know some people really like living on campus and closer to the school - but I don't study in the library (I'd much rather study at home) so it's been great for me.

I'm not entirely sure where Clark Park is... is it the neighborhood just north of the Champaign Country Club (that's what google maps is telling me)? If so, that's a perfectly fine neighborhood to live in - pretty sure Jimmy John (as in the guy who started the sandwich shop) lives over there actually You definitely won't find any undergrads that "far" from campus. And you're probably an 8-10 minute drive from school at the very most (actually might be faster) straight down Prospect and take Kirby all the way over.

Yes! The house is just to the right of the country club (on the side closer to the law school). After driving well over an hour to and from work everyday, 10 minutes is nothing . Also, I study primarily at my own house so that won't be a big problem. I'm glad its a nice area. The house seems perfect from what the realtor has showed me and described. Also, a big enough back yard for me to throw big BBQ parties

[ChattelCat]

Most of the neighborhoods in C/U are nice. I personally wouldn't want to live that far away from the school but "far" is a very relative term around here. You would still be only about a ten minute drive away. The most important housing advice I would pass along is don't live anywhere too close to where undergrads live, like around Green St near campus. Every time I drive around that part of town I am grateful that somebody gave me that advice.

The house is 1.8 miles from the law school. Thats pretty close, I thought. The ones that get really close that still have all the thing I want are double the price of this one .
Do a lot of undergrads live in Clark Park?

There aren't a whole lot of "bad" places to live around here - it's just a matter of how far you want to be from the school. I've lived on the far western side of Champaign and now live on the far eastern side of Urbana. My apt in Champaign was about a 14 minute drive to school (lots of stop lights), my current place is about 7 minutes from school... you can still go home for lunch. I know some people really like living on campus and closer to the school - but I don't study in the library (I'd much rather study at home) so it's been great for me.

I'm not entirely sure where Clark Park is... is it the neighborhood just north of the Champaign Country Club (that's what google maps is telling me)? If so, that's a perfectly fine neighborhood to live in - pretty sure Jimmy John (as in the guy who started the sandwich shop) lives over there actually You definitely won't find any undergrads that "far" from campus. And you're probably an 8-10 minute drive from school at the very most (actually might be faster) straight down Prospect and take Kirby all the way over.

Yes! The house is just to the right of the country club (on the side closer to the law school). After driving well over an hour to and from work everyday, 10 minutes is nothing . Also, I study primarily at my own house so that won't be a big problem. I'm glad its a nice area. The house seems perfect from what the realtor has showed me and described. Also, a big enough back yard for me to throw big BBQ parties

Nice! Yup, you'd be fine living over there. Nice area, really residential.

[Kilpatrick]

Champaign is a pretty safe place. The one thing I've learned from reading the police reports - if you are walking around campustown by yourself at night and a stranger asks you what time it is, just run.

[Barbie]

Champaign is a pretty safe place. The one thing I've learned from reading the police reports - if you are walking around campustown by yourself at night and a stranger asks you what time it is, just run.

lolwutttttt?

[Kilpatrick]

Champaign crime alerts:
"The victim, a twenty-one year old male, was walking on the sidewalk in
the area of Fourth Street and Healey Street when he was approached by
three individuals. One of these individuals asked the victim if he had a
lighter. The victim went to retrieve his lighter when he was struck in
the face by this offender."

"The victim stated while he was walking near the intersection of Third Street and Clark Street, he
was approached by a person who asked him a question that he could not
hear. When the victim walked closer to the subject to understand the
question, the subject punched him in the face."

Moral of the story - don't stop to talk or be nice to strangers. They will punch you in the face.

[crossingforHYS]

Hey guys!!! SO I got into Illinois today, INSANELY huge reach for me and I'm super excited about it. My only issue is that I would be paying out of state tuition, and while I received a 10K scholly, I'm still going to be paying a fortune for tuition which kind of scares me. I'm from the LA area and want to practice in LA, how do you guys say the job prospects look for people that want to get placed out here? I'm not really looking for Biglaw, though I'm not opposed to it, that's not the lifestyle I envision myself living. That being said I obviously don't have a 200k job to look forward to, and ITE do you think this would be a sound decision on my part? Let's hypothetically say I will also receive half tuition at a high/low tier 2. With your experience, I wanted to know what you guys thought about this.
thanks for taking questions guys

I'm in pretty much the same boat (although my scholarship is a little higher). I don't know how I can justify paying so much money for Illinois when I can go to a lower-ranked school for virtually free.

...sad because I'd really like to go to Illinois.

In a vacuum, half tuition at a T2 wouldn't be worth taking over Illinois. Better career prospects, LRAP (if you don't go the Biglaw route), and a better education easily justify the difference in cost. Full tuition at any school will always be a decent option, but you would also want to factor in any requirements for keeping the scholarship; many lower schools condition your scholarship on staying in the top 1/3rd. As far as LA, Illinois does place people on the west coast, but for most jobs you'll be better off at any of the decent west coast schools.

wait....decent like a t2 loyola? better off from that school?

[egilb]

Thanks so much for taking time to answer questions--it's so helpful! I'll probably have a lot more of my own soon because I'm 99% sure I'll be attending in the fall (reeeally excited!). For now, though, I'm curious if you've heard of anyone taking undergraduate courses during law school? Someone asked this somewhere else, and I'm curious about Illinois.

[wdk3618]

im not a student there yet but dean pless said in an interview thats on this site that yes many students can and do take undergraduate classes. They are free to take but you do not receive credit for them. hope that helps

[egilb]

im not a student there yet but dean pless said in an interview thats on this site that yes many students can and do take undergraduate classes. They are free to take but you do not receive credit for them. hope that helps

Yes! Thank you!

[Hannibal]

Tag.

It just clicked in my head that 180 is a REALLY SMALL class size. Sorry if this was addressed in the rest of the topic but how do you guys think it affects everything?

[crombot]

Tag.

It just clicked in my head that 180 is a REALLY SMALL class size. Sorry if this was addressed in the rest of the topic but how do you guys think it affects everything?

Not sure where you got that number? Current 1L class has 225.

Basically though, law school anywhere is worse than high school bc you have most classes with the same section of people. Everyone gossips about everything. I think the lockers are to blame.

[Barbie]

Tag.

It just clicked in my head that 180 is a REALLY SMALL class size. Sorry if this was addressed in the rest of the topic but how do you guys think it affects everything?

Not sure where you got that number? Current 1L class has 225.

Basically though, law school anywhere is worse than high school bc you have most classes with the same section of people. Everyone gossips about everything. I think the lockers are to blame.

But everyone is so much more mature than in highschool


Also, I booked my tour of the campus next Friday-- and I'm sitting in on a class! If any Illinois students would be willing to meet with me and give me a students insight into everything I would appreciate it! You can PM me !!!

[ChattelCat]

Tag.

It just clicked in my head that 180 is a REALLY SMALL class size. Sorry if this was addressed in the rest of the topic but how do you guys think it affects everything?

Not sure where you got that number? Current 1L class has 225.

Basically though, law school anywhere is worse than high school bc you have most classes with the same section of people. Everyone gossips about everything. I think the lockers are to blame.

That's the size of the current 3L class (and I think Pless mentioned that was the goal again for this coming year) - it honestly doesn't feel as small as you'd think. I'm a 3L and there were a handful of people in my class that I never met until this year. The way you're split up into sections 1L year tends to dictate who you get to know really well initially - although that changes a lot 2L year when you're in classes with 2L's and 3L's from all sections. 1L year is like high school because you're at school ALL the time - I've been told they purposely make the schedule like that. And yes, there are a lot of people who came straight through from undergrad and some of them still gossip, and form cliques and all those lovely high school type annoying things. The good news is that it goes away 2L year - or at least you're not forced to be in the same class with the same people all day long so you can avoid the gossip if you want to. (and honestly, it wasn't really that pervasive or annoying) Also 2L and 3L year, if you don't want to spend your entire day at school, you don't have to. I try to schedule all my classes back to back so I don't feel like I live there. That's harder to do if you study there (I don't) but at least the choice to spend the entire day there is up to you.

[Hannibal]

My acceptance letter says "this year, we will receive approximately 5,000 applications for the 180 seats in our incoming class." Maybe they're anticipating having to add seats or some such?

[blurbz]

My acceptance letter says "this year, we will receive approximately 5,000 applications for the 180 seats in our incoming class." Maybe they're anticipating having to add seats or some such?

Nope, they just want a smaller class this year than last.

[neeko]

tag

[TCScrutinizer]

SAT score divided by penis circumference/cup size, naturally.

To add some substance to this post for the sake of appearances, I should mention that my doctrinal classes this past semester were fantastic; Brilliant professors, bright classmates, it was everything I was hoping to get out of the experience. Only my legal writing class managed to disappoint.

You know cup size is a letter, right?

You know that cup size refers to a number, right?

[Hannibal]

Hi, another question that has probably been answered.

How are summer jobs usually handled? I'd imagine nearly all students at UIUC go to Chicago or some other big city every summer. Do you sublet your place in town, or just leave it there mostly furnished, or what?

[ChattelCat]

Hi, another question that has probably been answered.

How are summer jobs usually handled? I'd imagine nearly all students at UIUC go to Chicago or some other big city every summer. Do you sublet your place in town, or just leave it there mostly furnished, or what?

My 1L summer there were actually a pretty good number of people who stayed in town and worked for local firms, or state or federal judges here in town. I worked for a federal judge here which was great - saved me a ton of money and moving hassles. You can definitely try to sublet. I knew a few people who were able to sublet but they lived on campus. Off campus it would probably be harder to sublet for the summer. There are so many students (not just law) who leave town for the summer, most people I know just ended up leaving their place empty...but rent here can be really cheap so it's not always that bad. 2L summer I sucked it up and paid double rent here and in Chicago - which was way more than I wanted to spend for 2 months, but it's totally worth it when it leads to a job